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Thales celebrates key program milestone for U.S. Army s UH-72A Lakota Light Utility Helicopter program

09 February 2009

Irvine, CA, February 9, 2009 – Thales supported EADS North America in achieving a significant milestone on the U.S. Army’s UH-72A light utility helicopter program. On December 16th 2008, the 50th UH-72A aircraft was rolled off at the American Eurocopter production line in Columbus, Mississippi, for delivery to the U.S. Army Aviation. This aircraft was officially handed over by CEO for American Eurocopter, Marc Paganini to Lt. Colonel James Brashear, Product Manager for the U.S. Army Light Utility Helicopter.

As a first tier partner to EADS North America, Thales is supplying the UH-72A with its market-leading Meghas® avionics suite which is uniquely adapted to the requirements of today's helicopter missions. By design, MeghasÒ reduces crew workload and provides increased situational awareness, allowing Army Aviation and Army National Guard pilots to appreciate the clean, easy-to-fly avionics for military missions derived from the civilian world.

"Thales's vast experience in developing and deploying sophisticated avionics systems such as Meghas® continues to serve EADS North America well as we reach this important milestone," stated Brad Foreman, head of Thales's aerospace activities in North America. "We are confident that this versatile technology will continue to provide long-term value for the UH-72A program."

Thales has stood up a full program team to support this important program in the U.S. covering both the line-fit aspects and the in-service support in partnership with HSI, a subsidiary of Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation.

American Eurocopter expects to deliver a minimum of 352 aircraft to the U.S. Army by 2018.This utility helicopter is dedicated to missions such as medical evacuation, surveillance, search and rescue, disaster relief, and numerous other tasks.

About The Meghas suite
Thales' Meghas solution provides primary flight display, navigation display, multifunction display and vehicle and engine monitoring display within a modular and integrated architecture. Optimisation is key: the innovative Vehicle & Engine Monitoring Display replaces 13 different instruments in more conventional cockpits.

About Thales
Thales is a leading international electronics and systems group, addressing defence, aerospace and security markets worldwide. Thales's leading-edge technology is supported by 22,000 R&D engineers who offer a capability unmatched in Europe to develop and deploy field-proven mission-critical information systems. To this end, the group's civil and military businesses develop in parallel and share a common base of technologies to serve a single objective: the security of people, property and nations. The group builds its growth on its unique multi-domestic strategy based on trusted partnerships with national customers and market players, while leveraging its global expertise to support local technology and industrial development. Thales employs 68,000 people in 50 countries with 2007 revenues of €12.3 billion.